Since the outset of Israel’s war on Gaza, the Israeli government has been severely ramping up its crackdown on domestic dissent. Activists, members of academia, and ordinary citizens are getting hit with doxxing, job terminations, threats and arrests — especially members of Israel’s Palestinian minority.

Increasing repression is commonplace in wartime, but Israel’s already authoritarian government, led by far-right figures such as Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, along with the enormous grief that Israelis suffered in the wake of the October 7 attacks, have paved the way for especially harsh treatment of dissidents.

Akin to some Western states’ attacks on Palestinian solidarity protests, the Israeli police are effectively forbidding anyone from expressing such ideas. Following the violent dispersal of pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Haifa and Umm al-Fahm this month, the police commissioner declared that “those who identify with Gaza can be escorted there on buses.” Protesters who simply showed up to the events, among them minors and a journalist, were kept under arrest for days.